The Cosmic Shed

ESA are looking for new astronauts and you can apply. Dr Jennifer Ngo-Anh is Team Leader in the Directorate of Human and Robotic Exploration at the European Space Agency and joins Andrew for this episode of The Cosmic Shed.

Jennifer, a medical doctor with a PhD in neuroscience, joined ESA in 2006, and tells Andrew what ESA are looking for in the new astronaut candidates and what the new space faring recruits will have to look forward to...including ESA's plans to return people to the Moon.

Jennifer and Andrew discuss the Lunar Gateway, a space station planned to go in orbit around the Moon, which the successful candidates for this round of astronaut recruitment may well find themselves on one day.

Strap in and download this episode of The Cosmic Shed.

show notes

You can apply to become one of the new crop of astronauts here

Jon Boden has won 11 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. His new album Last Mile Home, from Hudson Records, is the final instalment in his trilogy of concept albums set in a post-climate change future. You might also know him as the lead singer and arranger of the legendary folk band Bellowhead. He joins Andrew for this special episode of The Cosmic Shed podcast. 

Jon's trilogy of post-apocalyptic albums began with Songs from the Floodplain in 2009, followed by Afterglow in 2017 and, this month, Last Mile Home. You can get your own copies of them here.

Jon and Andrew talk about science in folk music, the process of songwriting, quite how you make a concept album that is actually really brilliant and a whole lot more besides.

Download and listen now.

show notes

Jon Boden's Last Mile Home is available from Hudson Records

S.B. Divya is a Hugo nominated science fiction author, an A.I. engineer and an editor of Escapepod. She joins Andrew for this episode of The Cosmic Shed.

Machinehood builds upon S.B. Divya's love of science fiction and experience and knowledge of Artificial Intelligence from her extensive experience as an engineer in the field.

Download and listen to S.B.Divya on The Cosmic Shed.

show notes

Machinehood is from Saga Press

George Clooney's The Midnight Sky, currently showing on Netflix, comes to The Cosmic Shed podcast.

We're joined by legendary production designer Jim Bissell to discuss his work on The Midnight Sky. You might know his work from E.T. 

Our Steve got a teensy bit excited about the engineering in the film and we've indulged him big time in this episode. Happily, he's the kind of guy you want to indulge and he's come up with something rather special.

Steve and Prof Ben hatch a plan to work out the engineering of the Aether if it were a real life space craft...You can see a video of what Prof Ben and colleagues came up with on our Twitter account here

Prof Ben Hicks found that the optimum design for the booms is actually straight hollow tubes as in this image:

The Aether - could it really work? Prof Ben Hicks worked it out

Meanwhile, in "the shed" opinions are mixed but all found something to love in The Midnight Sky.

Download and listen now.

show notes

Abigail Harrison is also known as Astronaut Abby. Since the age of 13,  her eyes have firmly set on the red planet. Abby is an aspiring astronaut who dreams of becoming the first astronaut to set foot on Mars and the co-founder of the international non-profit organization The Mars Generation. 

Abby joins Andrew for this episode of The Cosmic Shed podcast.

Dream Big! How to Reach for Your Stars is Abby's first book and it "provides helpful advice and practical tips to help readers on the path toward finding, reaching for, and achieving their goals."

It turns out Abby is a bit of a science fiction fan too. Obviously, Andrew and Abby chatted about that and we find out which book and film she'll be taking with her when she sets off for Mars.

Download and listen now.

show notes

This is the episode. Disney have announced 10 new films and series in the Star Wars Universe. The Mandalorian Season 2 has just finished. The Arecibo Observatory just collapsed. We're in.

Andrew, Ti and Steve settle in to talk all things Mandalorian and Seth Shostak, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute joins us to talk about the latest in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence and the collapse of the Arecibo.

Fair warning, this is a spoiler laden episode so make sure you watch all of the first two seasons of the Mandalorian first. Once you have done that, settle in for our last episode of 2020.

You have two choices. You can download and listen at home or your can can download and listen outside. We can bring in 2021 warm or we can bring it in cold. It's up to you.

We have spoken.

show notes

Seth Shostak has written a lovely tribute to Arecibo

Andrew is joined by Pippa Ehrlich, Director/Producer of the wonderful documentary My Octopus Teacher now streaming on Netflix for this special episode of The Cosmic Shed.

It's been stealing hearts and winning awards across the world, including winning The Golden Panda at Wildscreen Festival which leads us to be able to type the following, deeply wonderful sentence:

My Octopus Teacher won the Golden Panda.

Pippa tells Andrew just what goes into making such a stunning film in a wide ranging conversation including diving in the kelp forests and making a film for Netflix.

Put on your warmest wetsuit and dive in. Alternatively, wear whatever you like and download the latest episode of The Cosmic Shed podcast.

show notes

Pippa is also part of the Sea Change Project. Find out about their wonderful work here.

Kellie Gerardi joins Andrew to talk about life in the Space Age and her work in the commercial space industry. Kellie is something of a social media star with over 200,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok and has set her sights firmly on reaching Space for herself.

Her new book, "Not Necessarily Rocket Science - A Beginners Guide to Life in the Space Age" is out on November 24th 2020

Kellie researches bioastronautics and has flown on the Vomit Comet (a plane which enables passengers to experience weightlessness) on a number of occasions as part of her research.

This being The Cosmic Shed, the conversation turns to Science Fiction and we learn of Kellie's links to a galaxy far, far away.

Download, sit back and listen to this episode of The Cosmic Shed with Kellie Gerardi.

show notes

The Cosmic Shed is part of the Stimulus Network

Next up on The Cosmic Shed, we explore Alice Winocour's fascinating new film, Proxima starring Eva Green and we hear from Alice Winocour herself.

Eva Green's character is surrounded by men

Andrew, Ti, Tushna and Achintya gather in the virtual shed, wishing they were next to each other and not separated by a lockdown and virus. All rather fitting for the film which you'll know if you've seen it and you should.

Strap in, escape under a fence or blast off into space. Do what you need to do but make sure you download this first.

show notes

In this long in development episode, we look back at the ground-breaking, record-breaking and undeniably beautiful Avatar.

Andrew, Ti and Steve are joined by the hosts of the For What it's Earth podcast Emma Brisdion and Lloyd Hopkins to discuss the science and storytelling of Avatar.

You'll also hear from Christopher Conselice whose research revealed the likely number of alien civilisations out there. Christopher  is an American astrophysicist who is currently a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Manchester.

Settle in under your favourite tree and listen to this brand new episode of the Cosmic Shed podcast. Oh and you might as well watch Avatar again too. It's been too long.

show notes

The Cosmic Shed is part of the Stimulus Network